This rip-roaring western from Barry (Night Boat to Tangier) chronicless an opium-smoking Irishman’s misadventures. The story begins in 1891 Butte, Mont., where Tom Rourke seeks ways to satisfy his reckless nature. He fancies himself a poet and balladeer, and to pay for his booze and dope, h... Continue reading »

Edgar winner Lansdale excels in his savagely funny 13th case for East Texas PIs Hap Collins and Leonard Pine (after The Elephant of Surprise). When Minnie Polson consults with Hap and his wife, Brett, about the blackmail she’s been subject to, the duo’s off-color jokes dissuade her from hir... Continue reading »

With this riff on the Brothers Grimm’s “The Goose Girl,” set in a fantasy world inspired by Regency romances, Hugo Award winner Kingfisher (Nettle & Bone) continues her hot streak of deeply compassionate, thrilling, and often laugh-out-loud fairy tale retellings. Cordelia, 14, grows up in a... Continue reading »

Pierce’s top-notch debut puts a dishy spin on the second-chance romance and forced proximity tropes. Wedding dress designer Andie Dresser is on the precipice of a career breakthrough when a client cancels an important order. She’d been banking on using that money to fund her debut show at Atlanta Fa... Continue reading »

Cartoonist Sweeney debuts with a candid portrait of life with a disability, drawn in delicate brushstrokes and natural colors. Born in Moldova in 1994, Sweeney showed early signs of Bruck syndrome, which causes fragile bones and joint contractures. After her birth parents placed her in an orphanage,... Continue reading »

The powerful sixth book from Metres (Shrapnel Maps), who is of Lebanese descent, confronts the trials of the present moment—including forced migration, climate change, and nationalism—through his family’s migration story. Metres wields poetic forms (among them odes, sonnets, and prayers) to... Continue reading »

In this tour de force from Brotherton (A Bright and Blinding Sun) and Lee (A Single Light), four friends’ lives change irrevocably when America becomes embroiled in WWII. In 1930s Mobile, Ala., preacher’s son Jimmy Propfield shares an idyllic upbringing with childhood sweetheart Cl... Continue reading »

Science journalist Keim (The Eye of the Sandpiper) investigates what animals think and feel in this bracing inquiry. Pushing back against the long-held scientific consensus that animals lack consciousness, Keim notes studies indicating that many birds model their nests on others they have s... Continue reading »

“A desire to show the real Bethlehem, and to celebrate it, is what led me to food and hospitality so many years ago,” writes Kattan, the owner and chef behind London’s Akub and Bethlehem’s Fawda restaurants, in his sincere and beautiful debut. Inviting readers to “share in the memories and flavours ... Continue reading »

Pulitzer winner Griswold (Amity and Prosperity) delivers a riveting chronicle of the fracturing of a progressive Christian church during a period of social and political turmoil. In 1996, “hippie church planters” Rod and Gwen White founded the Circle of Hope church in Philadelphia as an alt... Continue reading »

Among the titles Milo reads one night, one is “about a monster under the bed. Milo should not have read that book.” Frightened, he uses a flashlight to signal Mel, his best friend who lives across the street. Through their facing windows, the two use ASL to communicate about Milo’s fears. Mel sugges... Continue reading »